Michael Moore, the campaigning anti-capitalist film-maker, has turned on his
own partners accusing them of the sort of rapacious financial tactics he has
pilloried on the big screen.

The director is suing Hollywood movie moguls Harvey and Bob Weinstein for at least $2.7 million (£1.7 million) in a row over "missing profits" from his anti-George W Bush documentary "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Moore, 56, claims the Weinstein brothers used revenue from the 2004 film that was owed to him to pay for things such as "grossly excessive and unreasonable" travel expenses, including the cost of a private jet to fly one of them to Europe.

He also claims money used to acquire the rights of his movie, advertising costs, and payments to "distribution consultants" was deducted from what he was owed.

Bert Fields added that the timing of the legal claim just ahead of the Oscars was "very suspicious". The Weinsteins, who now run the Weinstein Company film studio, are on the verge of huge Oscar success for their Royal drama "The King's Speech", starring Colin Firth as George VI.

The falling out between some of the biggest names in independent film has shocked Hollywood.

"Fahrenheit 9/11" was championed by the Weinsteins when Disney refused to release it because of its political nature.

Since then, they worked with Moore on his 2009 film "Capitalism: A Love Story," in which the director savaged the "casino mentality" and greed of Wall Street, and the effects of the capitalist system in general.

In legal papers, filed on behalf of Moore's company Westside Productions in Los Angeles Superior Court, it was claimed: "The case is about classic Hollywood accounting tricks and financial deception."

Westside alleged the film had been a joint venture with a Weinstein company called The Fellowship Adventure Group and that the profits were to be "shared equally 50/50."

It claims an audit uncovered "highly irregular accounting practices" and the Weinsteins "failed and refused to share equally the fruits of the ventures the partners had agreed."

Moore's lawyer Larry Stein said the Oscars had no bearing on the timing, and the film-maker had no movie in the running this year.

He said Moore believed the Weinsteins had been "a force for good" championing independent film.

But he said: "This is the first time Michael Moore has ever sued anyone in his 20-year career as a film-maker. That should be some indication about how serious this is. It's very sad it had to come to this."